February 20, 2009 07:34 PM UTC

Endnotes On "Swastika Guy"

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• by: Colorado Pols

So the story arc of this week’s embarrassing appearance at the GOP’s anti-stimulus rally on Tuesday by the mysterious “Swastika Guy” has pretty much run its course–unless you’re one of the people hacked off about how the intended point of that rally, opposition to President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill, got lost in questions of who this guy was and what he was doing on stage with Colorado elected officials and nationally-known conservative pundits like Michelle Malkin. If that’s you, you’re probably not quite ready to drop this.

But you probably should, as the Rocky Mountain News’ Vince Carroll illustrates unintentionally:

Some birdbrain attended Tuesday’s Statehouse rally protesting the national stimulus package while toting an anti-Obama sign in which a large swastika appeared inside the “O.” So naturally ProgressNow Colorado, a left-wing agitprop group, put out a press release linking everyone within sight of the birdbrain – including Republican state Sen. Josh Penry, who has actually condemned the sign – with his bizarre sentiments.

The end of a tediously predictable story, right? I thought so, but thanks to Ari Armstrong of freecolorado.com, there’s one delicious postscript. It turns out – and this will surprise no one who has lived through the past eight years – that ProgressNow Colorado has a Web site whose blogs and reader comments have included a number of Nazi and fascist references to former President George W. Bush and other conservatives – which Armstrong has listed on his own blog.

What? The group can’t be held responsible for every nutty leftist who comments on the site? Maybe not, but it exerts more control over them than the organizers of an open-air political rally have over their crowd…

We’re going to say this one more time, using small words so that everybody understands: this defense is ridiculous.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the authors here at Colorado Pols do political work in our day jobs. Some of us have helped organize public political events of various descriptions. The idea that we or anyone, as permitted organizers of an event at the state Capitol, complete with a podium, a PA system and a slate of high-profile speakers, would somehow not be responsible for who appears on stage with those speakers, is just mind-blowingly, unbelievably stupid. This is “Advance Man 101,” folks, and no silly list of anonymous blog comments will absolve the organizers of this rally from responsibility. They screwed the pooch, embarrassed everyone on that stage, and lost control of their message as an easily predictable result. Period.

And just to be clear, no, obviously, it shouldn’t be illegal to carry a “Swastika-bama” sign. Lots of stupid and counterproductive things are not illegal after all, and you wouldn’t want them on stage with you either…